From the desk of Steve Cabot:

Since the soothsayer’s warning to Julius Caesar, the Ides of March has carried a dark connotation of doom and betrayal by someone close – a trusted advocate or ally. And that’s what came to mind as I read several items within the past week which highlighted the increasing divergence between the priorities of Organized Labor and the workers they claim to represent.

Here we are, still mired in the worst economic times since the Great Depression, and what do we hear from the union bosses – words of concern and a willingness to work with management to save jobs and build productivity? Not even close.

In a recent interview, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka spelled out his commitment to partner with radical (which he calls Progressive) political action groups to push the Far Left agenda of this administration. These are ideologically-driven efforts utterly disconnected with – and often in direct opposition to – the well-being of the American worker.

Is it any surprise, then, that employees – at least in the private sector – are questioning the value (and values) of their union leaders?  They see the abuses, the pointlessly confrontational attitude toward management, the unauthorized allocation of dues to political purposes antithetical to their interests, the intimidation in organizing elections, and the general hijacking of their rights. And increasingly, they don’t like it.

But out of this disillusionment has come great opportunity. For years, the Cabot Institute has believed in – and counseled clients to embrace – a WIN/WIN approach in the workplace, one that sees employees as partners, not pawns. One that rejects us/them in favor of a true shared vision.

And today, more than ever, we are seeing the fruits of this philosophy. I encourage you to reach out to discuss the specific ways we can assess your situation and suggest the best strategies going forward. You can call me directly on my cell phone (215-990-3423) or contact Georgetta McCabe, my administrative assistant, on her direct line: 800-655-2042.

cabot institute · Employee Free Choice Act · Labor Relations · National Labor Relations Board · organized labor · President Obama · richard tromka · Right to Work · Steve Cabot · Wisconsin

From the desk of Steve Cabot:

I wasn’t too surprised when Organized Labor decided to throw in with the motley mobs currently laying siege to cities across the country. After all, they have a lot in common. The anti-capitalist, redistributionist rhetoric coming from the agitators is standard fare at union rallies, and the paramilitary tactics of intimidation, disruption, and forcible occupation of public and private property are right out of the SEIU handbook.

The truth is, this is a natural – if unholy – alliance:  the demonstrators want to weaken corporations and demonize profits, and the labor unions are more than happy to provide logistical and financial assistance as a means of building their own public support and political power. For them, this is simply another step toward their goal of reestablishing workplace hegemony.

This is an ongoing saga, one with significant long-term implications. If you’re interested in learning more about the state of Organized Labor today and its impact on our economy, I invite you to read a compelling special report just released by Human Events entitled, “The Big Labor Stranglehold:  Killing Jobs & Hurting America.” Written by Dr. Carl F. Horowitz, project manager for the National Legal and Policy Center, this 26-page report looks beyond the well-publicized but misleading statistics about declining union membership and documents the strategies, goals, impact, and prospects of Big Labor in America.

To receive your complimentary copy, simply click here or on the image below to go to the Human Events website. Once you register, a pdf version of the report will be sent directly to the email address you specify.

For assistance with any labor relations issues, I encourage you to call me on my cell phone (215-990-3423) or contact Georgetta McCabe, my administrative assistant, on her direct line: 800-655-2042.

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From the desk of Steve Cabot:

Businesses across America are suffering at the hands of an aggressively pro-union National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). As a result, 86 national business associations and 131 state and city associations have formed the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace. The Coalition’s mission is to amend the National Labor Relations Act, so that businesses can operate at maximum rates of productivity and profitability.

The Coalition supports the Job Protection Act, H. R. 1976, which would, according to an article in the P J Tattler, clarify the NLRA “with respect to state right to work laws, reining the agency in after a series of unprecedented actions that heavily tilt toward Big Labor.”

From allowing micro unions to organize to preventing Boeing from operating in a right-to-work state, from permitting union organizers to trespass on private corporate property to promoting card checks, the NLRB has been proving to be one of the most injurious institutions to the health and growth of American businesses.

We urge all readers of the Cabot Institute of Labor Relations blog to contact their congressional representatives and voice their support for the Job Protection Act, H R 1976.

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From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

The National Labor Relations Board’s decision to prevent Boeing from opening a new out-of-state manufacturing facility has apparently inspired other workers to file complaints with the Board.

The American Guild of Musical Artists has now filed a federal complaint against the New York City Opera, which wants to move out of its famed Lincoln Center home after 45 years. The opera company is in serious financial difficulty and deeply in debt. Not only will the company move to a more affordable space, but it plans to reduce the number of operas it will stage next year, from five to three.

The opera company’s 200 members, including fifty choristers and ten production workers, are claiming that the move to a less expensive venue and the company’s intention to produce fewer operas than last season will result in reduced pay.

Of course, it will: that’s the point of restructuring. If the company is to survive and continue providing first-class opera performances to opera goers, it must cut costs. And one of its major costs is its labor expenses.

One can now expect that unionized workers of any company that wants to relocate to file a complaint with the NLRB. The Boeing decision has opened a Pandora’s Box of complaints that will continue to place obstacles against new opportunities not only for increasing profitability and productivity, but also (in this case) against a corporation’s very survival.

Corporate America can only hope that the NLRB does not approve this latest operatic complaint. It is an aria sung out of tune with logic.

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From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com), the NLRB has broadened its recent decision about not permitting Boeing to open a manufacturing facility in a right-to-work state. It wants to apply that decision to all companies.

Unions have traditionally focused their attentions on collective bargaining, wages, and benefits. Management has heretofore been free to decide where a company should operate.

Now the NLRB wants to change that formula: The Board would like to force all unionized companies to consult their workers’ unions before deciding to relocate to another state. In other words, if employees don’t want to move, then the company will have to stay put or attempt to get an exemption from the union and/or the NLRB. Unions would have unfair leverage as well as a veto.

This is a further example that the NLRB will do what organized labor demands to counteract the waning levels of union membership and even help unions capture new members. Rather than preserving jobs in America, such tactics will cause companies to relocate out of the United States. And that will be bad for everyone: workers, consumers, companies; in fact, it will prove injurious to the entire economy of country.

Boeing · cabot institute · International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers · Labor Relations · National Labor Relations Board · nlrb · Right to Work · South Carolina · stephen cabot · Steve Cabot · Washington · workers

From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

Having endured a potentially injurious decision by the National Labor Relations Board that would have delivered a severe financial blow to its bottom line, Boeing is fighting back. Its attorney, Michael Luttig, has issued a statement that the NLRB’s charges “fundamentally misquote or mischaracterize statements by Boeing executives.”

Indeed, Boeing has been vilified in the media through fallacious statements erroneously attributed to some of its executives.

To wit: Boeing was charged with wanting to fire its workers in Washington and replace them with non-union workers at its new South Carolina facility. It is a patently false charge, for no workers in Washington were going to be fired, none would be replaced by workers in South Carolina.

Boeing also states as false the government’s assertions that its move was an attempt to punish union workers in Washington. Since work would continue in Washington and no workers would be fired, one might ask how Boeing was punishing those workers. It’s an indictment without evidence. It is simply a charge based on complaints by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and advanced by its advocates on the NLRB, both of which do not want Boeing to operate in a right-to-work state.

We fully support Boeing’s position that the National Labor Relations Board should withdraw its complaint. Its complaint accusing Boeing of wanting to locate a new plant in South Carolina to avoid future labor disruptions in Washington state and to punish its unionized workers are without merit. As with all American companies, Boeing has the right to operate in geographic locations that are conducive to high levels of productivity.

Boeing · cabot institute · International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers · Labor Relations · National Labor Relations Board · nlrb · Right to Work · South Carolina · stephen cabot · Steve Cabot · Washington · workers

From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

The National Labor Relations Board has further evidenced its pro-union advocacy by attempting to prevent Boeing from opening a manufacturing facility in South Carolina, a right-to-work state.
Having endured numerous strikes against its manufacturing facility in Washington, including a 58 day strike in 2008 that cost the company $1.8 billion, Boeing management decided to build its new 787 Dreamliner in South Carolina. The proposed new facility would generate 1,000 new jobs and bring a $2 billion investment to the state..
The NLRB, however, filed a complaint against Boeing, alleging that Boeing is attempting to violate labor law in retaliation for past strikes against the company. The Board wants Boeing to stay in Washington. It’s no surprise that the International Association of Machinists District 571, which represents Boeing workers, declared the ruling “a victory for all American workers.”
Yet, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called it “one of the worst cases of unelected bureaucrats doing the bidding of special interest groups that I’ve ever seen.”
The NLRB is effectively attempting to abrogate the rights of Corporate America by eliminating its ability to decide where it wants to do business. It is also sabotaging the economic viability of twenty-two right-to-work states, which have been providing more new jobs than states which cater to unions and their often extortionate demands.

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From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

Right-to-work states are growing faster than states where unionization is the norm. A study by Richard Vedder, published in the Cato Journal, found that 4.7 million U. S. citizens moved to right-to-work states from forced-union states during the years 2000 to 2008. In addition, his study found that there is a “statistically significant relationship between right-to-work laws and economic growth.” In fact, during the years 1997 to 2007, those right-to-work states enjoyed a 23% more rapid growth rate for per capita income than states in the Northeast and Midwest.

Not only are jobs and people leaving the forced-union states, but companies, domestic and foreign, are choosing to build new manufacturing facilities in right-to-work states, primarily in the South. Such trends do not portend an economic resurgence for forced-union states. The onerous deficits that are hurting those states will only get worse.

And governors and state legislatures realize that one ailment keeping their economies on life support are unions. It is no wonder then that three states are considering becoming right-to-work states. They are Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Those states, like their neighbors in the northeast, desperately need new businesses, greater employment, and more tax dollars. The only way they will grow their economies and achieve their goals is to become right-to-work states. Other states should take notice and join the trend to economic growth.

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From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

UNITE HERE, the union for service workers, wants the Democratic National Committee to choose a city for its 2012 convention that has mostly unionized hotels. Neither Cleveland nor Charlotte, North Carolina meets that criterion. Thus, UNITE HERE has demanded that those two cities be removed from consideration.
As the biggest funders of the Democratic Party, unions have the power to decide where the party’s national convention will be held. In 2010, organized labor reportedly spent more than $171 million to help the party elect Democrats to both houses of Congress. While that is certainly a large sum of money, it didn’t serve to convince most voters to vote Democratic; however, it did give the unions more than a mere voice in Democratic political decisions. In other words, the Democratic Party owes unions big time.
And though North Carolina is a political swing state that the Democrats hope to win in 2012, it is also a right-to-work state. The Democrats must decide whether to put North Carolina’s electoral votes in jeopardy, or whether to alienate UNITE HERE.
Such a dilemma is predictable when a political party sells itself to a single special interest group rather than considering the overall good of the county. The Democrats are locked in a deadly embrace with organized labor, one that the majority of Americas find repugnant and economically destructive.

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From the desk of Stephen Cabot:

The acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a new rule to be implemented by the NLRB’s regional offices. It establishes procedures regarding employees who have been fired for aiding in union organizing campaigns.
The new rule orders regional offices to file injunctions in federal courts that require employers to maintain the employment of union organizers who have committed unfair labor practices. The employers must do so until the cases are formally resolved, which could occur after organizing campaigns have proven successful. Once that has happened, it is highly unlikely that unions would permit such organizers to be terminated.
The new rule is obviously intended to protect union organizers from the consequence of their aggressive tactics. Yet, the ruling does nothing to protect anti-union employees who may be victims of untoward behavior by aggressive organizers.
Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, stated that “The NLRB Acting General Counsel’s one-sided dictate creates a double standard against employees who want nothing to do with a union.”
This is one more effort by the Obama administration’s pro-union officials to find ways to implement the discredited, anti-corporate legislation known as “card check.”

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